Robert Brown/III. The Unicorn In Archaic Art
|next= }} A unicornic animal frequently appears in archaic art, but whilst asserting that all non-natural animal-figures or partly human figures when used in a religious connexion are symbolical, I do not for a moment contend that all unicornic animal-figures represent the moon; but merely that the creature whose form is familiar to us in heraldry, a kind of horse-stag or antelope, is a lunar emblem. Thus on a Babylonian CylinderSmith, 109. representing Bel encountering Tiamat, who, whatever else she may represent, is the Dragon of Chaos, the monster who rises on her hind legs, has a beak, crest, wings and a single horn; and is altogether very similar to one of the Seven Wicked Spirits that make war against the Moon-god Sin, as the representative of kosmic order.For a comparison between the Babylonian and Norse ideas on this subject, vide , , sec. xiv. The Seven Wicked Spirits of the Babylonian myth may be paralleled exactly with Seven Evil Personages of the Norse mythology, thus;— I am unable here to pursue this very interesting subject (vide Lenormant, Les Origines, 520; Smith, , 99 et seq.). This latter creature, a reduplication of the drakontic Tiamat, rises similarly on its hind legs, and has a crest, wings, and single horn.Smith, 101. Tiamat herself is elsewhere represented as two-horned.Ibid. 114. The horn has various meanings in symbolism,Vide , , cap. IX. sec. iii., Taurokerôs. the majority of which are not of a lunar character. But the following examples of the Unicorn, its allies, and opponents, are, in my opinion, certainly more or less connected with lunar symbolism;— On an Assyrian sardonyx Seal in the Louvre Museum,Vide Lajard, Culte de Mithra, pl. xlvii. is represented a crowned personage, behind whom is a serpent erect on its tail; his right hand grasps a dagger, and his left the horn of a Unicorn-goat, standing on its hind legs with the fore legs bent and head turned from him, the mouth touching the conventional Tree; above the animal, the crescent moon. The King (?) is about to slay the Unicorn, beneath the fore legs of which is a lozenge. With this design must be considered;— Another Babylonian Gem figured by Lajard,Apud Inman, Ancient Faiths, i. 156. on which is shown the king in the same attitude, grasping by the head a crowned and apparently human-headed and winged goat, in the same attitude as the Unicorn-goat. Beneath the fore legs of the crowned goat is a representation, apparently the yoni, the equivalent of the lozenge; and above the creature the crescent moon and behind it the conventional Tree, on the other side of which is a Goat in the same attitude as the crowned animal except that its head is regardantI do not always use this term in its strictest sens, i.e., looking towards the sinister. towards the Tree, as in No. I. The goat's two horns are close together so as to form but one, and beneath its fore legs is a figure composed of two crescent moons addorsed and fastened together. All the animals are salient. With both these designs let us consider;— An Assyrian Cylinder'' '' 112. of great interest, said to portray 'Merodach, or Bel, armed for the conflict with the Dragon;' but which I prefer to call 'The Sun-god and the Moon-god arranging the preservation of Kosmic Order.' On each side of the representation is a palm-tree; in front of the one on the right hand Merodach ('the Brilliance-of-the-Sun') stands fully armed, on a leopard-like animal,This animal may be one of the hunter-god's 'four divine dogs,' Ukkumu ('Despoiler'), Akkulu ('Devourer'), Iksuda ('Capturer'), and Iltebu ('Carrier-away'). For the sun god to be dog-attended is no novelty. Vide the Vedic Yama ( , , Appendix C. 5). It is to be observed that this conventional position standing on an animal, reappears further west, e.g., at Pterion, in Asia Minor (vide Waring, Ceramic Art in Remote Ages, pl. xxxix, fig. 16), where a figure said to be the goddess Anaitis, holding a crescent-topped staff and accompanied by a salient unicornic animal, stands on the back of a leopard-like animal, and is followed by an attendant who stands on the back of a dog. Here, again, crescent and unicorn are seen in close connexion. and above his crowned head is the solar star, the key to the symbolism. Merodach's right hand is raised as if in oath on a treaty, as is the right hand of a human figure in another long garment, in front of and apparently conversing with him. Behind this second figure are two Unicorn-goats, counter-salient, with heads regardant as in the last example. Above the Unicorns and the second figure, which I believe represents the Moon-god, is a crescent moon, curiously divided into three parts,As to the triple aspect of the moon, vide secs. , by what seem to be handles. Beyond the Unicorns is a second Palm-tree. The unarmed Moon commissions the warrior Sun to go forth to the great contest. In all three instances we find the Unicorn, the Crescent-moon, and the Tree.For the connexion between the Unicorn and the Tree, vide In the first two representations the Unicorn is being attacked and overcome by a personage whose crown and attire are very similar to those of Merodach. The type is evidently a familiar one; the Unicorn's horn in each case almost touches the Tree, to which its head always turns. In No. II. the Man-goat strives with the Man; the Goat, the reduplication of the former, does not: there is sometimes peace between the Unicorn and its assailant, and sometimes war. In No. III. the Leopard, which, as it could be trained to hunt, was a fit type of the Hunter-sun, is at peace with the Unicorns; whilst Sun and Moon consult together against darkness and chaos. The remarkable position of the two Unicorns indicates, I think, the monthly cycling progress of the moon, 'there and back' (counter-salient). Reduplication is a noted feature in symbolism; and we have here (1) the Moon-god, (2) the crescent moon, (3) the young moon, and (4) the old moon. The next type to be noticed in this connexion consists of a divine personage between two other symbolical beings, whose hands or arms he grasps in a friendly manner;— Divine four-winged personage, with round cap on head, and long fringed robe reaching to the ankles, but leaving the right leg exposed as ready for action as in the case of Merodach.No. III. His right hand grasps the wrist of an androkephalik winged animal rampant, with human hands but lion's feet; his left hand grasps the right fore foot of a winged Unicorn, rampant, with hoofs. 35. Variant phase.Lajard, Culte de Vénus, pl. xxii. fig. 3 A carnelian cylinder. A similar personage, but without wings, stands in the same attitude between two semi-human, Dagonic (semi-piscine) figures, one of which has a large eye, the other has apparently its cap drawn down over the eye. To the right is the winged circle (not solar), the familiar type of the head of the Assyrian Pantheon.Vide Prof. Rawlinson, ii. 4. Third variant phase.A cylinder (ap. King, vol. ii. pl. ii. fig. 6). A similar personage between two androkephalik, winged, rampant animals. To the right the Moon-god in his crescent boat above the Sacred Tree.Vide The helmet of the creature next the Moon-god is horned. In this representation I think we have the Demiurge Bel, whose eldest son in the formal Pantheon is Sin, the Moon-god, making a covenant between the Sun and Moon for the preservation of kosmic order.Vide No. III. The second creature in No. VI. is a reduplication of the Moon-god, whose introduction in his crescentVide a similar figure in Prof. Rawlinson's ii. 16. gives the key to the symbolism, whilst preserving the secret of it. The Moon-god, as 'Lord of growth,'The Akkadian Enzuna, the waxing-moon. Cf. xxxiii. 14; 'The precious things put forth by the moon.' is stationed immediately over the Tree of Life. Both Sun and Moon are sea divinities as in No. V.Cf. the solar voyager Kibirra-Izdubar, the golden Phoenician Chrysôr, who 'was the first man who fared in ships;' Melqarth, the solar Tyrian hero, who sails to the farthest regions of the West (vide cap. XI. sec. i.); the Aryan Fish-sun (Apollôn Delphinios), Frog-sun, etc. So 'when the sun had set Oannês used to retire again into the sea, and pass the night in the deep' (Alexander Polyhistor, ap. Cary, Ancient Fragments, 56). The Zodiacal Capricorn, which appears portrayed much as at present on a uranographic Babylonian stone of the twelfth century B. C. now in the British Museum (vide Professor Rawlinson, ii. 574), originally represented the Fish-sun climbing goat-like up the eastern steep. If this interpretation be correct we have the lunar Unicorn (No. V.) as the equivalent of the lunar fish and the lunar androkephalik animal. ---- |next= }} Category:The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation